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Today I in the mail, I received a dose of the financial reports that I’ve come to expect from various funds and stocks that I’m invested in. The one from Barclay’s Captial just offended me. It’s as thick as a local phonebook and has densely printed prose, tables and graphs on every page. My question is, who on earth is going to read any of that? This is a horrible waste of natural resources and simply denudes forests to fill up landfills. All this information is undoubtedly online but the default seems to be paper mail. I’m guessing there’s some law about disclosure that requires financial firms to publish these tomes. It wouldn’t suprise me if it was sponsored by the paper lobby!

Tags: commentary, ecology, financial reports, natural, paper, political, resources

I recently sent some form email to my congressional representatives and the FCC regarding the battle over wireless handset exclusivity agreements between the large carriers (ATT, Verizon, Sprint, T-mobile) and the phone manufacturers. These agreements are what force you to use ATT to get an iPhone, or other types of phone from other manufacturers. Like the Internet, mobile phone service should be standards based and open to all manufacturers and consumers. You can read more about this at FreeMyPhone.

Today, I received the following letter from my US Senator, Joe Lieberman (D-CT). I don’t have a lot good to say about Joe on many issues, but this letter does summarize nicely a lot of the important reasons we should all be on the side of an open mobile phone environment, in addition to keeping the Internet free and open. I’m hoping Sen. Lieberman is on the side of the consumer along with President Obama on this one.

July 29, 2009

Dear Mr. Cascio:

Thank you for contacting me regarding exclusive cell phone sales and distribution contracts that limit the services consumers can access on their wireless devices, a practice commonly referred to as “handset exclusivity.” I understand that this is a difficult issue, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.

As you mention, many wireless device manufacturers have reached agreements with large wireless companies, such as AT&T and Verizon, in which they agree to sell a certain phone exclusively through a particular carrier’s network. For example, those who purchase Apple’s iPhone can only use it to access AT&T’s phone and Internet service. Currently, nine out of the ten highest selling phones are locked into such exclusive deals. In addition, there have been allegations that service providers have prevented subscribers from accessing web content and downloading applications that directly compete with their own services. For example, many users have complained that they have a difficult time using the Internet phone service Skype because it competes directly with their carrier’s phone service.

Critics of exclusive device agreements argue that they adversely affect consumers by limiting choice and increasing prices. They point out that because many phones are sold through only one network, many consumers have to forego purchasing the device that best fits their needs so that they can sign up for a service plan they can more easily afford. In addition, critics contend that exclusivity allows carriers to charge more for popular devices than they would if the same device was being sold by multiple providers. Furthermore, many rural phone carriers assert that such arrangements unfairly prevent consumers living in rural areas that are not served by one of the major carriers from being able to use some of the more advanced phones on the market.

On the other hand, wireless service providers contend that exclusivity agreements result in lower prices for consumers because it allows providers to offer package deals in which customers can purchase a handset device at a reduced price in return for agreeing to subscribe to a carrier’s service. For example, they cite that the average price of the iPhone has declined by almost $300 since Apple first agreed to sell it solely through AT&T almost two years ago. Industry officials also suggest that exclusivity deals help to spur innovation because carriers will continuously request that manufacturers develop new features in order to stand out from their competitors.

You may be interested to learn that the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Technology held a hearing on this topic entitled the “the Consumer Wireless Experience.” For more information on this hearing, I suggest you visit the committee’s website at: http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=03b81ffd-ba9f-42e6-8331-7c28f6d112b0.

Recently, Michael Copps, the Acting Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), announced that FCC would take steps to examine handset exclusivity agreements to determine whether they “adversely restrict consumer choice or harm the development of innovative devices.” Julius Genachowski, President Obama’s nominee for FCC Chairman, has also indicated that he believes FCC should investigate this matter. In addition, there have been reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has opened an initial review into whether large service providers are abusing their market power, including the use of exclusive agreements with handset makers. Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind as I continue to monitor this issue.

Thank you again for sharing your views and concerns with me. I hope you will continue to visit my website at http://lieberman.senate.gov for updated news about my work on behalf of Connecticut and the nation. Please contact me if you have any additional questions or comments about our work in Congress.

Sincerely,

Joseph I. Lieberman

UNITED STATES SENATOR

JIL:gjz

Tags: cell phones, handset, handset exclusivity, mobile phones, open, politics, standards, telephony, wireless, wireless phones

Birthdays at our house are always excuses to make fancy food, drink champagne and eat too much. Tonight, for our son’s birthday (33), my wife Barb made a favorite of his that we discovered at a local restaurant, The Seahorse, in Noank, CT. The official name on her recipe is “Spinach fettucine topped with lobster, scallops, crabmeat, tomatoes and asparagus in a tarragon cream sauce” (whew!!). Herewith is the recipe.

Ingredients

1 sm. shallot, chopped finely

4 1/2 Tblspoons butter

3 tsps tarragon

Asparagus tips (1 bunch)

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

3/4 cup heavy cream (don’t subsitute light cream, it will curdle)

1 1/4 cup lobster stock (not bottled clam juice)

1/2 cup dry white wine

Meat of 2 1-1/4 lb lobsters, chopped

1/3 lb. small scallops

1 can crabmeat

1 box spinach fettucini

Salt, pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Cook shallots in butter 3 mins.

2. Add tomatoes and tarragon, increasing heat to high so tomatoes lose some of their moisture.

3. Add the lobster stock, cream and wine and continue boiling until sauce has reduced.

4. Add salt, pepper to taste.

5.Reduce heat, stir in seafood and already steamed asparagus tips. Cook 2 mins. until meat is hot.

6. Serve over spinach fettucini.

Tags: cooking, crabmeat, cream, fettucini, lobster, sauce, scallops, tarragon

In honor of July 4th, Independence Day, I am going to school all of you in the preparation of a proper New England Lobster Roll. To the visitor to New England (“from away” as you’re known here) I will warn you that there are dining establishments that claim to serve lobster rolls, but most are merely pretenders, poseurs. They serveth not the True, the Honest, the Original Lobster Roll, but merely a tawdry, cheap imitation. Beware, I say! Read here a description of an Authentic New England Lobster Roll and be not cheated! Or better yet, make your own and enjoy them at a third the price!

Ok, so I went on a bit there, but you get the point. I’m going to give you instructions on making a real lobster roll, like we enjoyed as kids here in New England before lobster became a delicacy in Japan and lobster meat became so expensive (like $40/lb) that restaurants began to find ways to cut it, add fillers and otherwise cheapen one of America’s most delicious summer treats.

Ingredients:

1. Lobster meat. You can make six well-packed lobster rolls with two 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 pound live lobsters. Or you can buy about 1 pound of pre-picked lobster meat, which will cost you dearly, chummy. Now right here I want to emphasize that a True Lobster Roll is filled with only lobster meat, not some abomination of Lobster Salad, which has celery, gobs of salad dressing, and god knows what other fillers in it so it ends up being cheaper to make. No. Use lobster and only lobster.

2. The Roll. If at all possible, use a New England style hot-dog roll, which is different from the rolls you may find elsewhere. These are known in cooking circles (thank you Grace Piper..) as a “top-loader”. Take a look at the first picture in the post. Notice that the roll stands up with the slit at the top through the toasted upper surface. It does not lay on its side.

3. Melted butter and mayo. What is lobster without melted butter? In a lobster roll, the butter is drizzled over the top of the lobster when in the roll. Optionally, one can coat the inside of the roll with a little mayonnaise for flavor, but for god’s sake don’t go overboard here, ok?

That’s it. It’s as simple as dirt and much better tasting.

Process:

1. If you’re working with live lobsters (much preferable) get a large pot of water to a rolling boil and throw the lobsters in. Cook for 10 minutes after the water begins to boil again. Remove from water, drain and let cool. You can get a bad burn from the residual water left inside the shell. Make sure they’re really cooled.

2. Break the lobsters apart and extract all the meat you can. I use a meat cleaver as a broad plate to break down the claws and knuckles (ie, the claw joints). Be careful to keep bits of broken shell out of the meat. Chop the tails into small enough pieces to fit in the rolls. The picture shows what two lobsters will yield in pure meat. Don’t bother too much with the bodies, as there isn’t enough meat in there to justify the time required to extract it. The bodies can be used to make a great lobster tomato sauce, so you can save them for that if you want.

3. Coat the sides of the rolls with butter and grill them on a skillet to a golden brown. This is a touchstone of a real lobster roll: the butter-grilled roll.

4. If you like mayo, spread a small amount on the inside of the roll, then fill the rolls with the lobster and serve with chips, and maybe some corn on the cob as we did today. They’re always good with beer, although my wife and daughter drank champagne with theirs today. I tried a little and it was excellent!!

Tags: lobster, lobster roll, New England, original

Tags: announcement, development, distributed applications, federation, internet, microblogging, protocol, publishing, rss, slap, subscribing

Many thanks to Jeff Pulver for creating a stimulating mini-unconference on March 10th called Social Media Jungle Boston, and particularly for inviting me to speak on the topic “The End of the Compuserve Era of Social Networking.”

Jeff Glasson of PerkettPR did yeoman duty videotaping all of the presentations that day. I can’t imagine how much time he’s spent editing it down. Here is Jeff’s recording of my session.

I had a brief interchange with Jeff Cutler on Twitter just now about the old bloggers-aren’t-journalists debate. This on the heels of listening to Daniel Schorr on NPR yesterday talk about how it’s disturbing to him that anyone can “publish” things on the internet and no editor or staff fact-checks it or holds it to any journalistic standard.

For what it’s worth, I think journalists are unnerved and defensive because one of the mediums that they’re published on now is open to anyone to publish.  They seem to feel that this is unfair. Because their access to the web is controlled, they seem to feel everyone’s should be.

Mr. Schorr, on that same NPR show, said that the internet was like a market or bazaar where anyone can come and shout anything they want and be heard by anyone who cares to listen. This is a particularly apt analogy. If we apply it to journalists on the internet, we see that it’s like making them stand on a milk crate and announce the news on the street corner just like everyone else, whereas before they had special arrangements. They spoke from a balcony with a loudspeaker.

And that’s the inversion that I think not everyone appreciates. It’s not so much that we, the bloggers have invaded the journalists’ turf, it’s rather that they’re now forced to operate on ours. A medium used to come with a certain implied or built-in credibility and certainly privilege. If you got to speak, it was sort of assumed that at least you had your facts more or less straight.

But access to a medium does not necessarily equate to credibility and really, it never has. Anyone with sufficient money can print their own newspaper. But just because something is printed on sheets of paper that look like a newspaper doesn’t mean it’s true. Trustworthy journalists and news institutions earned their stripes over the years by doing their jobs well and being proven out by facts and people’s real-world experiences.

I think journalists should believe in their own credibility a little more and realize that most of us out here reading things on the internet value reputation and track record just like we did before. Sure, there are still plenty of people who’ll choose the equivalent of the supermarket tabloid or Fox News, but you never had them anyway. It not that you’re standing on a street corner with everyone else that matters, it’s what you say when you get there.

Tags: bloggers, credibility, journalism, publishing

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by Ravit Lichtenberg (@ravit_ustrategy) to help with some perspective on a blog post she is preparing. Ravit is the founder of Ustrategy LLC, whom I met through one of her clients, Julie Rorrer (@juliedarling), a fellow Connecticut Twitterer. (Really, how else does anyone meet these days except through Twitter?)

I’m afraid I gave Ravit way more information than she was really interested in, but in the process of answering her questions, I really got into the retrospective mood and went into some detail of how I got into this online maelstrom called Social Media. After sending it off to Ravit, I got to thinking it might make a good blog post. I mentioned to this Ravit in a subsequent exchange today and she encouraged me to make it public. So, here, with almost no editing excecpt for formatting, is “My Social Media History.”

How did you start with Social Media?  Why did it attract you?

Ravit,

I hope this isn’t way more information than you wanted, but once I got started, I found myself enjoying the romp through history. I’ll send the answers to your original questions tomorrow, ok?

As best I remember, I got introduced to social media through videoblogging. Specifically, I started watching Rocketboom back in 2005, when Amanda Congdon was the host. I began to comment on the rocketboom site and on Amanda’s personal blog. I also got interested in a little video blog called DriveTime, which featured a guy named Ravi Jain and his wife Sonia from Boston who did a talk show in their car during their daily commutes. What really struck me about Ravi and Sonia’s show was how intimate the videoblog medium was. After just a few episodes, I felt like I knew them personally. Video is very unique that way. It forms a personal bond the way writing or audio never can. And I suppose that was the “social” aspect that really drew me in. The possibility of getting to know smart, creative people through their web presence really intrigued me.

In July of 2006, Amanda Congdon had her infamous firing with Rocketboom’s founder Andrew Baron. After leaving Rocketboom, she started her own personal videoblog from Connecticut, which I started to comment on fairly regularly. Finally, she landed a new gig and kicked it off with a launch party in New York City in Sept 2006. The party was hastily arranged at the new offices of the pioneer video hosting service blip.tv. I decided to go with the hope of meeting a real “web-celebrity”. I will never forget meeting Amanda. I introduced myself and she said, “Oh! You’ve been commenting on my vlog!” and gave me a big hug. I have to say, if anything cemeted social media for me, it was that experience. Here was someone known by millions, but still accessible and a “real person”.

Now, you can’t be into videoblogging and not know about Steve Garfield. Steve is the Father of Videoblogging and figured out, on his own, how to post video to a blog back in January of 2004. Steve runs a monthly meeting called Boston Media Makers that attracts people in video, audio, radio, TV, newspapers, art, acting, film, blogging and just about any other topic under the heading of “media”. I started going to those meetings back in late 2005 and met Steve (with whom I’ve become friends) and Ravi Jain.

In October 2006, I also started my own videoblog, Joe’s Video, Etc. I used a digital still camera (and still do) that takes video and did some simple editing with Windows Movie Maker. I’d started doing some political text blogging earlier than that, but my largest contribution in blogging came with video.

Later that year, and into the first part of 2007 and SXSW, I got onto Twitter and have been totally hooked ever since.

You are, as you point out, not the usual demographic for all things social media and microblogging (I’m probably on the edge myself). You’re also not in the (stereo)typical geography—i.e., Silicon Valley, NY, Austin, Portland.  You must have a truly unique perspective on things and how Social Media is being used around you

I am near Boston, though, which has a very prolific and active social media community, many of whom are involved in marketing and PR. Over the past year or two, I’ve made many new friends, including Chris Brogan (@ChrisBrogan), Laura (@Pistachio) Fitton and ex-Bostonian Julia Roy (@juliaroy).

How do YOU define social media?

Social media is people conversing and sharing using text, audio, video and (gasp!) actual in-person meetups. Social media also has an explicit notion of networking. Building a social network of “friends” or “followers” is intrinsic to the notion of social media.

What do you use it for?

Meeting people in a purely social sense. Social media has allowed me to find a large group of people that I like and that like me. And the great thing is that liking each other is the primary thing that binds us together. Not work, or profession or common interests, although there are a lot of those. Yeah, I would say that’s the primary thing.. people I like who like me, too.

Secondarily, it has turned into my method of getting work. Networking has always been a key to success in business, but social media has kicked it into orbit. I’ve found the key is to NOT try to exploit it overtly for business. That’s where a lot of social media and esp. Twitter newbies fall down. They try to use it as another channel to push their message out. The thing you have to understand about social media is that it’s like a string. You can’t push on a string, you can only pull.

How do you see it evolving?

I like to say that we are in the Compuserve era of social networking, in which there are a lot of services, each providing essentially the same thing that do not interoperate, that are vying to try to capture users from each other. I hope that the future lies in open, standard protocol based social networking instead of closed, walled gardens. The Open Stack initiative is working in this direction, although so far it isn’t clear how it would find a path to success.

If you’re a golfer like me, or familiar at all with the sport, you’ve probably heard of Natalie Gulbis. She’s the leggy, blond golf pro who not only looks good, but has the game to have won on the LPGA tour, which is no mean feat. Most professional golfers struggle for years and never come close to winning a tournament. She also was a standout in the Solheim Cup in 2005, helping the US to a win in the team matches with Europe.

This week, I discovered that she’s now on Twitter as @Natalie_Gulbis. She is, as far as I know, the first top-tier professional golfer of any tour to be on Twitter. Yay, Natalie!! That she would be the first is totally in keeping with her accessible, outgoing and friendly personality.

At this writing (Dec 29. 2008), she only follows 4 people and is followed by only 234. But I give her and her agent major props for realizing Twitter is a good place to be. Like anyone new to Twitter, it may take a little time to discover how it works. I’m hoping that unlike many celebrities, she will really get in and talk with people.

Of course, someone like Natalie Gulbis needs to be careful with the public. I can imagine she has more than her share of unwanted attention. But at least on Twitter, you don’t have to hear from anyone you don’t want to. And there is so much to be gained from engaging with people and making new acquaintances and friends, not to mention drawing non-golfers into the sport.

If I may make a suggestion, it will be the same as to anyone new to Twitter. Listen first, follow first. If you hear something interesting chime in. Make an observation, a joke, ask a question or state your opinion. Most importantly, be a person, not an inaccessible celebrity. Twitter is a conversational medium, a means for introducing and connecting people, not just another broadcast channel. Let that sunny personality of yours show through. You’ll find we’re a friendly lot and you’re more than welcome to join the conversation.

Tags: golf, Natalie Gulbis, twitter

If there are any WordPress plugin coders reading this, I need your help.

I’m writing a WordPress plugin to add Open Microblogging Support to a blog. In order to do this, I’d like the plugin to add a special OpenMicroblogging Page to the blog. This special Page is supported by a custom Page Template. Page Templates are normally added to the theme directory. And therein lies my lack of understanding. How do I get a plug-in to add a page template? Copy the php file in the installer code? Seems a little dodgy, but maybe?….

Tags: development, distributed microblogging, open microblogging, page template, plugin, themes, wordpress